Sunday, April 10, 2016

The Locked Gate, Ecumenical Patriarchate

Visiting the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, in the Phanar region of modern day Istanbul, ones sees a curious
thing, i.e. a locked gate. In order to enter the premises, everyone needs to
enter a side gate and not the main entrance, which has been closed since 1821.
This has to do with the murder of Patriarch Gregory V, who was hung there by
the Ottomans, in 1821.

Gregory V of Constantinople was
the 234th Patriarch of Constantinople. He served as Ecumenical
Patriarch for three separate periods (1797-1798, 1806-1808 and 1818-1821). He
was martyred in 1821 during the Greet War of Independence. He was later
glorified as a saint by the Church of Greece in 1921 whilst also being
commemorated as an Ethnomartyr. He is remembered on April 10.

Why was he murdered? The problem
began in his third reign, where he became Patriarch during a crucial and tense
time, in respect to the Greek struggle for Independence. In 1818, Gregory
became a member of the Filiki Eteria that was preparing the revolution against
the Ottoman Empire. When Alexander Ypsilantis crossed the Prut River, starting
the Greek revolution, Gregory felt it necessary to excommunicate him to protect
the Greek of Constantinople from reprisals by the Ottoman Turks. The reprisals
did come during Holy Week in April 1821. During the celebration of the Divine
Liturgy, on the night of Easter (April 10), Gregory was arrested and, by order
of Sultan Mahmud II, hanged on the front gate of the Patriarchate, still
wearing his full Patriarchal vestments. The gate has been closed, locked and
not used since.

After hanging for three days and
being mocked by the passing crowds, his body was taken down and given to a
group of Jews who dragged it through the streets of Constantinople before
throwing it into the Bosporus. The accounts differ, on whether the Jews who did
this were forced or volunteered, but the tale spread widely, leading to several
bloody reprisal attacks in Southern Greece by the Greek rebels, who regarded
the Jews as collaborators of the Ottomans. Eventually, the Patriarch’s body was
recovered from the sea by a Greek sailor, Nikolaos Sklavos, and sent to Odessa,
then to Southern Russia, where it was buried with honours at the Church of the
Holy Trinity. Later, his relics were enshrined in the Metropolitan Cathedral in
Athens.

About Me

I have studied Theology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Theology, International Relations at the University of London (Queen Mary). My Master's Thesis was published as a book: 'The Aegean Sea Dispute Between Greece and Turkey - The Consequences for NATO and the EU'. For more information see: http://www.akakia.net/el/the-aegean-sea-dispute-between-greece-and-turkey
I have also studied Byzantine Music in Athens and I am currently undertaking a research on the “Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius and its contribution towards Anglican – Orthodox Relations”, at the University of Winchester.
I also represent the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain at the A.E.C.A. If you wish to contact me you can email me: demetrifs1@yahoo.com